28 November 2011

Latina/Chicana Mothering provides a glimpse into the journey of mothering within the diverse spectrum of the histories, struggles, and stories of Latinas and Chicanas. Here, the Latina/Chicana mothering experience emphasizes the need for various conceptualizations of mothering, especially in regard to the conditions which shape the lives of Latinas and Chicanas, such as race, gender, sexuality, culture, language, social status, religion, kinship, location, and migration. The book has four sections: testimonios (narratives), links between motherhood and communities, mothering challenges, and literary and cultural images of Latina/Chicana mothers. As the essays in this book unfold, they reveal new images of motherhood and offer ways to transform Latina/Chicana mothering.

"Compelling narratives, testimonios, empirical research and literary representations on mothering make up Latina/Chicana Mothering. Dorsía Smith Silva has assembled a powerful collection of essays that get at the spirit of Latina/Chicana mothering. Diversity of thought and discipline is the beauty of this anthology as it extends the topic across studies in education, incarceration, violence, homelessness, popular culture, and feminine icons among others. This is essential reading in Chicana feminist work, women studies, ethnic studies, feminist theory, and motherhood."

-Ruth Trinidad Galván, Department of Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies, University of New Mexico, co-editor of the Handbook of Latinos and Education.
-Dorsía Smith Silva is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. She is the co-editor of Caribbean Without Borders: Caribbean Literature, Language and Culture and Critical Perspectives on Caribbean Literature and Culture.

October 2011

258 pages $34.95

ISBN 978-0-9866671-3-8

Maternal Pedagogies: In and Outside the Classroom

edited by
Deborah L. Byrd and Fiona J. Green.

This is the first anthology to theorize about ways in which cultural views of motherhood and personal experiences of mothering affect the processes of teaching and learning, this collection features fifteen articles by Canadian and U.S. women of varying backgrounds, interests, and fields of expertise. Some essays examine ways in which individuals and groups who do not occupy positions of unearned privilege and power use maternal pedagogies to resist oppressive ideologies and practices based on race, class, sexual identity, and ability, while others reflect on how belonging to one or more privileged groups affects the author's pedagogical views and experiences. Some contributors focus on the teaching and learning that occurs when parents are interacting with their children; others examine ways in which ideas about mothering and motherhood affect teacher-student dynamics that occur within educational institutions; still others discuss ways in which the teaching of one's children resembles and differs from the teaching of one's students. Other essays foreground ways in which contemporary public policies and institutions shape or are shaped by maternal pedagogies, whereas others examine the relationship between mothering and teaching from an historical perspective or in the context of activism and social justice work.

"The book brings up a plethora of important questions about the changing definitions of motherhood in different contexts, cultures and historical periods, and across different mediums of communica- tion and educational settings. The editors have created a provocative collection of essays on what is a relatively new and under-theorized topic for both women's studies and education."

-alice e. giNsberg, author of And Finally We Meet: Intersections and Intersectionality among Feminist Activists, Academics and Students

-Deborah Lea Byrd is Associate Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania. She is lead editor of Teaching the Isms: Feminist Pedagogy Across the Disciplines (2010) and has published articles on 19th- and 20th-century British writers, mentoring programs for teenaged and low-income single mothers, and building and sustaining partnerships with community organizations.

-Fiona Joy Green is a feminist mother, Chair of the Department of Women's and Gender Studies and a Co-Director of the Institute for Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Winnipeg. She is the author of Feminist Mothering in Theory and Practice, 1985-1995: A Study in Transformative Politics (2009), and Practicing Feminist Mothering (2011).

Through the Maze of Motherhood: Empowered Mothers Speak
written by Erika Horwitz

This is a unique book that argues that mothers who are critical thinkers and who take a stance against social pressures to be perfect mothers experience a sense of empowerment. The book is based and expands on qualitative research that explored the experience of mothers who resist the current discourse on mothering. Through the Maze of Motherhood conveys what it is like to resist a strong societal discourse and how some mothers have managed to navigate the intricacies of the process of resistance. This book also dispels the belief that there is one right way to mother and, therefore, suggests that a process of questioning and resisting the current myths may result in a more autonomous, agency driven, and empowered way to mother. This book will not only encourage resistance that can lead to freedom from the oppression of the discourse, but that it will also persuade women to refrain from judging one another and develop a strong community with a strong voice against the ideal of the prefect mother. Through the Maze of Motherhood gives voice to mothers who are in a process of resistance to the discourse on mothering and it unpacks the many benefits, intricacies, challenges, and struggles they experience. Moreover, the book provides evidence for the notion that critical thinking and resistance are experienced as empowering even though they present some challenges.

"Through the Maze of Motherhood gives voice to women who bucked the norm of good motherhood ... and have no regrets. They mothered their way, and, in doing so, felt challenged but empowered. It is a must-read for independent-minded mothers and scholars."

-Shari Thurer, author of The Myths of Motherhood: How Culture Reinvents the Good Mother

"Erika Horwitz's book is a refreshing and important look at how resistance works, is experienced by mothers, and what supports mothers' resistance and challenges to dominant discourses of motherhood. By interviewing mothers rather than only theorizing resistance, Horwitz adds a much needed exploration in motherhood studies about the personal, contextual, and situational factors that support resistance to the dominant, white, and western model of motherhood. By doing so, Horwitz encourages readers and mothers to find strategies of resistance that can work for them, while also encouraging mothers to support one another in the struggle to resist the dominant discourse of motherhood."
-D. Lynn O'Brien Hallstein, Boston University

"Drawing on many examples from the life experiences of mothers and on her wealth of knowledge from 20 years of teaching parenting courses, Erika Horwitz offers rare and honest insight into how some mothers have made decisions to successfully deviate from the confining and limiting dominant set of rules and expectations of motherhood in ways that result in the mothers feeling empowered as they actively engage in alternative ways of parenting."

-Fiona Joy Green, author of Practicing Feminist Mothering and co-editor of Maternal Pedagogies: In and Outside the Classroom
Erika Horwitz is a registered psychologist. She is the Director of Counselling Services at Simon Fraser University and a Lecturer both at Simon Fraser University and the University of British Columbia in their Faculties of Education and Counselling Psychology Programs. She has published several articles on the topic of motherhood, and has appeared on television and radio interviews as an expert and advocate for mothers. Dr. Horwitz lives in Vancouver, British Columbia with her two daughters and her husband.